The Amateur Yorksherman

Abstract

This poetry collection represents a new approach to Yorkshire dialect poetry, which has traditionally been humorous and usuallyhas retrospective subject-matter with a sentimental theme.

These poems, by contrast, take a serious and contemporary look at Yorkshire themes, using dialect words where they remaincurrent and representing features of accent in non-traditional ways. In particular, the use of an apostrophe, rather than the t’ ofstandard treatments, is an innovation which communicates beyond the region, and allows readers from beyond Yorkshire to‘hear’ the accent of the poems.

Another innovative feature of this collection is that a number of the poems are the result of ‘discursive intervention’ in othertexts, such as ‘On Ilkley Moor’ and Robert Burns’ poems, which reflects Gill’s interest in, and knowledge of, stylistics.